Find out in which ways do shopping centers vary as their size increase (determined by the number of shops).

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Geography Coursework

Min-Kai Lin 11AJP

WJP

Contents

1.Introduction        3

2.Data Presentation and Analysis        7

3.Conclusion        19

4.Evaluation        21

Introduction

-Aim

        Shopping hierarchy exists in urban centers. The aim of this report is to find out in which ways do shopping centers vary as their size increase (determined by the number of shops). Research was carried out in Nei-Hu District, Taipei, Taiwan. The following were investigated:

  • Shop types
  • Building height
  • Traffic and pedestrian flow
  • Environmental quality-litter
  • Environmental quality-noise
  • Amenities
  • Shopping patterns:

-Sphere of influence

-Frequency of visit

-Money spent

-Transportation method

-Purpose of visiting

-Time spent

2 large centers where investigated. One was the local high street and another an out-of-town shopping center. The purpose was to find the difference between them.

-The area and centers (see map for location of centers)

        Nei-Hu district is a mix of residential and business area. Taipei is a fairly new city, it may not have developed characteristics of older cities. It is located outer area of Taipei City. Thus, most people live here to commute to work.

The results from different centers vary be due to its location. Two corner shops were investigated because there may not be enough respondents to show the characteristics of small centers.

Centers were as follows:

C1-main high street of the district

C2-out of town shopping center

C3-local high street

C4-small center in residential area.

C5-cluster of shops near high way.

C6.1-corner shop

C6.2-corner shop near commuting zone.

At C1-C5, sample points were chosen to represent the area for certain data. See map.

-Methodology

        At larger centers, sample points were chosen to represent the area. The larger the center, the more sample points were placed. This is because data may change in different parts of a large center. The points were random, but were equally spaced.

  • Shop Types

This was done because as centers increase in size, shop types will change. The time of investigation is not important: shops are not likely to change. Data was collected during the day at working hours. Shop type determined by majority of good/services provided. This is to aid recognizing shop types. One difficulty was investigating shops in C2. because there were only 3 superstores, the percentage of different goods sold was calculated by counting how much space each type occupies (this was in rows). This may be inaccurate as some goods occupy more space.

Shops were categorized into the following:

        -Comparison Shops [CM]

        -Convenience Shops [CON]

        -Restaurant [RES]

        -Snacks [SN]

        -Service [SER]

        -Financial [F]

        -Entertainment [EN]

        -Educational [LEARN]

        -Specialist [SP]

        -Department [DEP]

  • Building height

  • Traffic and Pedestrian Flow

  • Environmental quality-litter

Bi-polar analysis was used. Points were given according to the type, size and amount of litter seen within 3 meters radius of sample points.

        -Paper and card board pieces (point/unit)

                One unit was defined as a piece about the size of an adult’s hand.

        -Drink cans (point/unit)

These include aluminum cans, plastic cans and general drink cans. A 1.5 liter bottle would have been counted as 2 units.

        -Plastic pieces (point/unit)

                Definition same as paper.

        -Polystyrene pieces (point/unit)

It was important to have this category because many restaurants use polystyrene, and because restaurants are very common in Taiwan. Definition same as above.

        -Small pieces of litter (point/10units)

These are little pieces of litter, e.g. cigarette butts and any of the above at sizes 5-10cm.

        Time may also affect the results, so this was collected at 2-3pm weekdays. It was not repeated because time should not affect the results significantly. Sample points were used.

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  • Environmental quality-noise

Bi-polar analysis was used. The data was collected at 10 am and 4pm weekdays at sample points. The average was used; noise may be affected by time. I listened to the noise for 1 minute and gave a value. They were as follows:

  1. Small enough to ignore, e.g people walking, chat, cats and dogs.
  2. Scooter, bikes, car driving by slowly.
  3. Average-acceptable
  4. Large amounts of vehicles (trucks, cars, scooter)
  5. Very loud, construction site noise, traffic honking and airplanes

Sometimes it is difficult to judge.

  • Amenities

        These included:

        -bins

        -public telephones

        -post boxes

        -public chairs

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